The most probable locations of Atlantis

There have been many locations proposed for the location of mythical Atlantis. Some are more or less serious attempts at legitimate scholarly or archaeological works; others have been made by psychic or other pseudoscientific means.

Many of the proposed sites share some of the characteristics of the Atlantis story (water, catastrophic end, relevant time period), but none have been proven conclusively to be the historical Atlantis.

Thera (Santorini)

Soon after the discovery of the Minoan civilization at Knossos on Crete by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, theories linking the disappearance of this advanced empire with the destruction of Atlantis were proposed by K. T. Frost in 1913 and E. S. Balch in 1917. This theory was revived by Spyridon Marinatos in 1950, Angelos Galanopoulos in 1960 and P. B. S. Andrews in 1967. More recent archaeological, seismological, and vulcanological evidence has expanded the asserted connection of Crete, the island of Santorini, and the Minoan civilization with Plato’s description of Atlantis. (Recent arguments for Akrotiri being Atlantis have been popularized on television in shows such as The History Channel show Lost Worlds episode “Atlantis” Evidence said to advance this idea includes:

The Minoan palace and buildings discovered at the digs at Knossos on Crete and at Akrotiri on the island of Thera have revealed that the Minoans possessed advanced engineering knowledge enabling the construction of three- and four-story buildings with intricate water piping systems, advanced air-flow management, and earthquake-resistant wood and masonry walls. This level of technology was, it is said, far ahead of that found on mainland Greece at the time.
Thera (also called Santorini) is the site of a massive volcanic caldera with an island at its center. Vulcanologists have determined that the island was engulfed by a volcanic eruption, the Thera eruption, around 1600 BC. The event, referred to as the Minoan eruption, was among the most powerful eruptions occurring in the history of civilization, ejecting approximately 60 km³ of material, leaving a layer of pumice and ash 10 to 80 meters thick for 20 to 30 km in all directions and having widespread effects across the eastern Mediterranean region. Volcanic events of this magnitude are known to generate tsunamis and archaeological evidence suggests that such a tsunami may have devastated the coastal Minoan settlements on Crete.

Plato did not describe a volcanic eruption, although the events he described as “sunk by an earthquake” or “violent earthquakes, and only a flood (in singular)”, could perhaps be interpreted as consistent with such an eruption and the resulting tsunami.

Plato described quarries on Atlantis where “one kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red”, The center of the metropolis of Atlantis was described as being laid out in a circular manner, surrounded by three circular concentric pits of seawater and two earth-rings, each connected to the sea by a deep canal. Docks for a large number of ships, with a causeway, were also mentioned. Scientists reconstructing the shape of the island prior to the eruption have concluded that there was a ring configuration with only one narrow entrance to a larger lagoon with islands inside, much as Plato described. One fresco in the ruins of Akrotiri is believed to be a landscape of the city. It shows a large city on an island in the center of the caldera lagoon.

Black Sea

German researchers Siegfried and Christian Schoppe locate Atlantis in the Black Sea: Before 5500 BC there was a great plain in the northwest at a former freshwater-lake. 5510 BC the barrier at today’s Bosporus broke due to the rising sea level of the world-ocean. The Pillars of Hercules are identical with the Strait of Bosporus. Oreichalcos means the obsidian stone that used to be a cash-equivalent at that time and was replaced by the spondylus shell around 5500 BC. The catastrophic event led to the neolithic diaspora in Europe, also beginning 5500 BC.

In 2000AD Robert Ballard in a small submarine found remains of human habitation around 300 feet underwater in the Black Sea off the north coast of Turkey. The area flooded around 5000BC. This flood may have inspired the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, but the area need not be Atlantis.

Antartica

The theory that Antarctica was Atlantis was particularly fashionable during the 1960s and 1970s, spurred on partly both by the isolation of the continent, and also the Piri Reis map, which purportedly shows Antarctica as it would be ice free, suggesting human knowledge of that period. Flavio Barbiero, Charles Berlitz, Erich Von Däniken and Peter Kolosimo are some of the popular authors who made this proposal.

More recently Rose and Rand Flem-Ath have proposed this in their book, When the Sky Fell; the theory was revised and made more specific in Rand’s work with author Colin Wilson, in The Atlantis Blueprint (published in 2002). The second work theorized that Atlantis was to be found in Lesser Antarctica, near the coast of the Ross Ice Shelf. A geological theory known as “Earth Crust Displacement” forms the basis of their work. The Atlantis Blueprint uses both scientific and pseudoscientific (such as mere speculation and assumptions) means to back up the theory.

Charles Hapgood came up with the “Earth Crustal Displacement theory”. Hapgood’s theory suggests that Earth’s outer crust is able to move upon the upper mantle layer rapidly up to a distance of 2,000 miles, placing Atlantis in Antarctica, when considering the movements of the crust in the past. It is to be noted that Albert Einstein was one of the few voices to answer Hapgood’s theory. Einstein wrote a preface for Hapgood’s book Earth’s shifting crust, published in 1958. This theory is particularly popular with Hollow Earthers, and can be seen as a mirror of the Hyperborean identification. In his book “Fingerprints of the Gods”, author Graham Hancock argues for the Earth Crustal Displacement theory in general, and the Atlantis/Antarctica connection specifically, then goes on to propose an archaeological exploration of Antarctica in search of Atlantis.

Bimini Road

Off the coast of Bimini lies an ancient stone formation submerged beneath crystal blue waters. The mysterious path makes many wonder if it is remnants of the mythical lost land of Atlantis.

Researchers, geologists, archaeologists, and scientists alike have visited and studied the huge, flat stones off the coast of Bimini, known as the Bimini Road . They have tried for years to discern whether the limestone blocks are a natural phenomenon, or evidence of an ancient lost civilization.

Bimini is an island in the Bahamas, part of a chain of islands 50 miles east of Miami, Florida. A mere 20 feet down in the blue waters off the coast, a stone path can be found; large, flat rocks cut at right angles, seemingly set purposefully in straight lines. This impressive formation stretches half a mile along, with a pronounced hook at one end. The stones can measure up to 13 feet (4 metres) across.

According to Unsolved Mysteries in the World , “The origin and meaning of ‘Bimini’ are unknown. However, the name appears in the Ancient Egyptian language and Baminini, which means, ‘Homage (ini) to the Soul (ba) of Min.’ Min was the Egyptians’ divine protector of travelers on far-off journeys, a particularly appropriate god to be worshiped at distant Bimini, if indeed the island had been visited by voyagers from the Nile Valley.”